Tuesday, 15 July 2008

For this project I thought I would get out and dust off my old beading ideas. Using my own digital background design that I printed out on glossy paper. Found a cute picture in my scrapbox of a cherub and got down to creating my bead fairy. For the body I made one large sequin daisy flower, using a flower base 20mm then added a 10mm pearlised sequin flower and a Rocaille bead at 3mm. These flowers are so simple to make. Using 28 ga. wire thread through the rocaille bead or seed beads as they are sometimes called. Then twist to hold it firmly 2 twists is enough, then thread on the 10mm flower, then the 20mm flower, to keep mine in secure place I added a clear plain sequin. Then open up the wire and pull, be careful of your fingers here the wire can cut. The strands of wire now opened will keep the flower intact. For the smaller flowers repeat as above without the 20mm flower. To complete the line up just thread 3 or 4 small seed beads onto wire and twist gently to hold until you put it all together.

The Wings

For the wings I used a length of wire and threaded on

about 15 Bugle beads 2mm in size. For the first bead thread wire through then thread the other end of wire through so that you sort of tie a knot. Now continue to thread on the remaining beads. Once complete start to roll the beads gently as they do break. A couple of turns is enough. Then fasten off by twisting wire around the first bead and knot.

For the outter of the wing, I used Bugle beads 2mm in blue or pink, thread on a piece of wire about 20, then shape it around the inner beads and fasten so that you end up with a rounded shape as you can see in lulabell picture.

Putting it all together

Twist both wings together attach to the back of the cherub or picture you have, I used Bostick sticky dots to hold the wires, then added a foam pad over the top to raise the picture. Taking the largest flower make a small hole just under the body, thread both wires through the hole and open up on the backside like you would a brad, only pull it once again to that the beads are held tight. Do the same with the smaller flowers but at different distances. Also the same for the 3 beads on the wire, this time once through the hole pull tight.

I hope the beaded fairy tutorial here is easy to understand and you will have fun making one, they do take some time to get the wings right! The first one took me about 3-4 hours to design and complete.

Thursday, 10 July 2008

I was helping one of the service users I care for in my work, they wanted to make some different style cards. So both of us got down to creating some new ideas. We went through endless books and catalogues, eventually coming up with the idea of nostalgic cards. The picture we covered with acetate and added gold peel off corners, then added some pretty borders of peel offs at the sides. Cutting out some of the flowers and raising them on foam pads as well as the cherub.

In all there are 5 in the set, you can swap and change ideas with each picture. The cards are A6 size and easy to create. I have added more to my photo gallery, there are still more to make to this set. After we are going to reduce the size of the pictures and make a set of atc's with them. Experimenting again...lol.

About Me

Designing and crafting cards,scrapbooks, altered books and ATC's.
My daytime job is working with young and middle age adults, with physical and sensory impairments, promoting their independance. As well as introducing them to art and other activities.
Support Worker.